Family Survives Carbon Monoxide Poison Scare

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LENEXA, Kan. -- A Lenexa family is back home after spending time in the emergency room. Dangerous levels of Carbon Monoxide filled their home on Wednesday morning and the family barely escaped.

Terri Lynn Miller had reservations about going on tv and saying she messed up. There was no Carbon Monoxide detector in their home. She wanted to tell her story in hopes that no one else gets sick or worse.

"If it saves someone else or it helps another family it's worth it," said CO poisoning victim Terri Lynn Miller.

Miller, her husband and 12-year-old son are all recovering from CO Poisoning.

"We woke up when we smelled what we thought was natural gas," Miller said.

What they didn't smell was the carbon monoxide. They all had headaches and once they escaped their home, they felt worse.

"Both my son and I were vomiting," Miller said. "The gas guy said call 911."

Lenexa firefighters and Johnson County Med Act showed up and immediately put them all on oxygen. Then they discovered the source of the problem and how bad it really was.

"It was the furnace and it was carbon monoxide," she said. "The levels were at 500 down in the basement, and 200 up on the top floor where we sleep."

100 parts per million can be deadly so getting the Millers to the hospital was imperative.

"In this case, it was a significant high level over a short period of time," said Bat. Chief Eric Ramsey with the Lenexa Fire Department. "It could've been a bad situation."

Once the Millers started felling better, they realized they needed a new furnace.

"The second we started talking about replacing the furnace, my first thought was not an expense not right after Christmas but we are all alive, we'll pay what we need." Miller said.

The family knows safety is important. Their house is full of smoke detectors and even a fire extinguishers. One more important item was missing.

"We've been in this home a little over two years and the home I was in before had a carbon monoxide detector and just not in this one yet," she said.

The fire department loaned the family a CO detector temporarily. Miller says they will buy their own today. She hopes people who don't own one will be encouraged to get one after seeing this story.